Items starting with U

UDL: A Systematic Approach to Supporting Diverse Learners

09/2015

Articles and Publications

Advances in neuroscience and digital imaging give us an unprecedented understanding of how individuals access, process, and respond to information. Previously we may have had an intuitive understanding that our students learned differently. Now functional MRI scans demonstrate this in living color. However, simply recognizing learner diversity is one thing; navigating this challenge in the classroom is quite another.

August 20, 2015. Presented by Rashad, Baadqir. This workshop will provide insight into defusing the myths and sterotypes being placed on Muslim students, while creating a vehicle that seeks to better engage in the power of dialogue and cross cultureal understanding.

Presented by Rashad Baadqir, this workshop while focused on examining the myths and stereotypes being placed on Muslim students, will also address the climate of campus wide safety creating a vehicle that seeks to better engage in the power of dialogue and cross cultural understanding.

In his wonderful TED talk, Dan Meyer describes how he began one of his math classes by showing students a video of a hose slowly filling a bucket with water. After a while of watching the video, one of the…

Presented by Georgeann McKee.Develop and complete the Unit Plan for 2017. Determine needs and goals our Department wishes to achieve for the 2016/2017 school year. Obtain training on the new SLO Entry system and any changes that have been made to the SLO criteria.

According to Paul and Elder’s (2013a) survey findings, most faculty don’t know what critical thinking is or how to teach it. Unless faculty explicitly and intentionally design their courses to build their students’ critical thinking skills and receive training in how to teach them, their students do not improve their skills (Abrami et al., 2008).

When I tell people that I study the role of communication in teaching and learning, the most common response is: “Isn’t communication just common sense? I’m an expert in what I teach; why do I need to worry about how I communicate?” In reality, communication is a learned verbal and nonverbal skill that all of us must continually refine. When we interact with our students purposefully, we maximize the chances that our content expertise will make a positive difference in terms of their learning.

Feb. 25, 2014. The Friends of the Congo (FOTC) was established in 2004 to work in partnership with Congolese to bring about peaceful and lasting change in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire.

“What is one of your pet peeves?” That question is among those I might ask my students at the start of nearly every class session as a way of taking attendance. Asking about pet peeves always elicits a lively, engaged discussion. Faces light up, and everyone wants to share their own personal irritants. This engagement never happens when taking attendance is nothing more than reading names from the roster with an answer of “Here” or “Present.”

Nearly every teacher has experienced students forgetting something important. This forgetfulness comes in various forms. It might involve not following instructions for an assignment, missing a due date, forgetting important details on a test, or even forgetting to take the test itself. Whatever the memory infraction, there are usually good reasons why students forget. Gratefully, there are a few simple ways teachers can build context to help students achieve deeper and longer lasting learning.

Using Fundamental Concepts and Essential Questions to Promote Critical Thinking

01/2015

Articles and Publications

Could your students identify the most important concepts in your discipline? Do they leave your class understanding these most fundamental concepts, including the ability to reason using these concepts to answer essential questions? Do your students become critical thinkers who connect concepts and practices in your course with other courses? With their future professional lives?

January 14, 2015. SCC’s WordPress site makes it easy to get started using Google Analytics to track how many times your pages are viewed, how much use they’re getting on-campus vs. off-campus, where your traffic is coming from, and even what links users are clicking on your pages. This session will show examples of what the library has learned so far and scratch the surface of a complex and versatile tool that can help improve your web presence.

I just finished putting together some materials on grading policies for a series of Magna 20-Minute Mentor programs, and I am left with several important take-aways on the powerful role of grading policies. I’m not talking here about the grades themselves, but instead the policies we choose as teachers.

Most of us are aware of the important benefits that cooperative learning offers for student achievement (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2007). We frequently use, or seek out these strategies to further engage our students in the content and enhance the learning environment. However, when it comes to our growth as teachers, we typically don’t employ.

August 21, 2014. Presented by Susan Griffin. This workshop is meant for faculty from the English Department who will be using tutors in their English Writing 51 classes or are considering using tutors in their courses.

Closing the so-called achievement gap between poor inner-city children and their more affluent suburban counterparts is among the biggest challenges for education reformers. The success of some schools’ efforts suggests that meditation might significantly improve children’s school performance – and help close that gap.

Faculty dread the grade appeal; anxiety prevails until the whole process is complete. Much has been written about how to avoid such instances, but the potentially subjective assessments of written essays or clinical skills can be especially troublesome. One common cause of grade appeals is grading ambiguity in which the student and faculty member disagree on the interpretation of required content. Another cause is inequity, whereby the student feels others may have gotten more credit for very similar work or content (Hummel 2010). In the health-care field especially, these disagreements over clinical-skills assessments can actually result in student dismissal from the program and may lead to lawsuits.

Participants will:?Identify signs of behavior change,
Use S.O.A.P. to document behavior changes,
Verbalize SCC’s Student Code of Conduct and procedures for dealing with disruptive classroom behavior,
Successfully complete a role play,
Feel comfortable communicating with a student who might be displaying changes in behavior and understand the process for dealing with it.

Presented by Rick Brewer and Dr. Tanya Rodriguez. Engaging our students where they are is an important aspect in any classroom. And, our students are consumed with social media. This hands-on presentation will help you decide if using social media – blogs/vlogs, message boards and social networks – in your classroom may be a way to increase student engagement and success.

Are your students constantly updating their statuses on Facebook? Uploading selfies to Instagram at inappropriate times? Refreshing their Twitter feed every five seconds? Chances are the answer is “yes,” and if you’re like the majority of teachers, you find it mildly annoying at best, or a serious impediment to learning at worst.

August 20, 2015. Presented by Rick Brewer. This workshop will delve into organizational communications from a newly emerging perspective, that of the "constituency framework" and show how SCC can, as a college, become a more communicative organization - both internally and externally.

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Student-Generated Reading Questions: Diagnosing Student Thinking with Diverse Formative Assessments, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 42 (1), 29-38. The Teaching Professor Blog recently named it to its list of top pedagogical articles.

Presented by Pamela Posz. LinkedIn is the largest professional online social network in the world. Learn how to use this powerful tool to strengthen your professional network and learn how to help our students develop their own professional networks using LinkedIn. This session will cover the basics of creating a profile and connecting to others on the website. Please bring an electronic version of a professional photo that you can upload to LinkedIn.

August 21, 2014. Presented by Jacek Kozikowski. Several of the classrooms in the Davis Center feature interactive whiteboards ('smartboards'). This workshop will introduce the basics of smartboard use and allow participants a chance to use the features.